Tech companies LightSquared, Crittercism and ThinkingPhones are still around but no longer answer to those names.

You practically need a scorecard to keep track of these companies this week, as they have all changed names for one reason or another, and naturally are putting a positive spin on the results.

The networking industry has a long history of name changes, from France Telecom to Orange, Siemens Enterprise to Unify, and more recently, Google to Alphabet, etc. But of course redoing a company name is not a matter taken lightly given that some firms dole out tens of thousands of dollars to be branded just so. Not to mention all the subsequent pains in the neck and everywhere else, from getting new web domains to pounding out new business cards and other collateral.

Now the outfit is calling itself Ligado Networks, "a new brand that signals the company’s future vision of deploying its mid-band spectrum to deliver next-generation connectivity while also conveying the company’s heritage as a network service operator providing satellite connectivity throughout the U.S. and Canada."

Fuze has tied its bundled its name change with a funding announcement: a Series E round of $112M smackers led by Summit Partners.

CRITTERCISM NO MORE

Crittercism, a company whose catchy-but-confusing name conjured up both cuteness (critter) and negativity (criticism), is also changing its brand. Meet the more generic-sounding Apteligent.

The company says it is moving beyond its crash/latency reporting to deliver "critical data and insights across multiple dimensions of the app lifecycle for enterprises of all sizes." Just to narrow things down a bit, Apteligent is going after the "Fortune 5,000,000," with Basic, JumpStart and Enterprise editions of its offerings (including a new Adobe Marketing Cloud connector for the Enterprise version).

What's more, you can check out a new Apteligent data site full of metrics and benchmarks about the mobile industry, such as iOS 9 and Android crash rates.

This story, "Networking company name change madness is upon us" was originally published by
Network World.

Bob Brown is a news editor for Network World, blogs about network research, and works most closely with our staff's wireless/mobile reporters. Email me at bbrown@nww.com with story tips or comments on this post.